HELLO MY NAME IS…

12012015

Remember when you were a kid and you would confidently advance forward in an area of your passion and right when you started to feel good about yourself, somebody would ask you quite curtly, “Who do you think you are?” That question asked in a sarcastic manner would put us on the defensive or maybe even poke a hole in our momentum and cause us to doubt what we had only known to be true just minutes before.

“Who do you think you are?” How we respond to that question can shape our identity, alter our life choices, and literally affect our legacy! How would you describe yourself? How do you introduce yourself? How do you perceive yourself? Do you have a healthy self-esteem? Do you possess a positive self-image? Are you honest in your assessment of your own potential? What’s your identity? Is who you think you are who you really are? Is who you say you are who God would say you are? Have you ever even thought that the Lord might have an opinion in this matter?

When you know who you are, then you know what to do. If you don’t know who you are, then you don’t know what to do. How would you answer this question: I am “fill in the blank”? I am rich. I am poor. I am young. I am old. I am smart. I’m stupid. I’m loved. I’m hated. I’m single. I’m married. I’m married. I’m divorced. I’m desirable. I’m undesirable. I’m successful. I’m a failure. I have hope. I’m hopeless. Who do you think you are? How do you see yourself? How does your identity alter and affect your destiny? Sometimes your identity can be in total crisis, and conflict, and chaos all at the same time. Do you ever feel that? Chances are very good that you are in for an identity crisis when you allow the crowd to cram its creed into interfering with your true conduct!

We have just begun a study in Ephesians on the weekends at The Lighthouse Church. In this amazing letter, the apostle Paul attempts to show us that if you try to do Christianity without being properly connected to the truth of who God says you really are in Christ-there will be a huge disconnect between what you say you claim to believe and the manner in which you actually behave! And don’t we see that in the church today? Aren’t too many believers known for their constant contradictions and horrible hypocrisy and a lack of backing up the talk with an accurate walk? More often than not, we suffer from the serious lack of spiritual power in our lives because we attempt to do the impossible while stuck in the natural mode!

The Los Angeles Times reported several years ago the story of a man and wife who died in their fifties and they found them dead in their apartment and the autopsy revealed they both died of malnutrition. What was interesting was that when the police found their bodies, which had already begun to decay by the time they were discovered, they searched the apartment and found in the closet a whole pile of little paper bags and they opened the little paper bags and found a total of $40,000. It’s a little ridiculous to die of malnutrition, and have $40,000 in paper bags in your closet.

The book of Ephesians is written to Christians like that. You might ask, “What do you mean? What kind of Christian is like that?” I’ll tell you. It is the kind of Christian who doesn’t understand the riches he or she has in their relationship with Christ. It is the kind of Christian who wanders through life with a whole abundance of heavenly delicacies at their fingertips, but they refuse to reach out and answer the invitation to show up at the banquet feast! This kind of Christian doesn’t know how to tap into the spiritual resources because they don’t take the time to apply what they say they know to be true. And in their sad ignorance, their faith dies of starvation. In their poverty, they never really find out how spiritually rich they could be.

I pray that you would be able to answer the question: “Who am I?” with the proper identity that God provides you with! Who do you think you are should be completed with the truth of all God says about you? Do you know that you were made in the image and likeness of God? Do you know that you don’t have to achieve his blessing, but just receive it? Do you know that God doesn’t make one with more of his image than another? The book of Ephesians is a reminder of what God first told man when he created him in the first place! Sometimes we just need to have our memories refreshed! Maybe that needs to happen every day- several times a day!

During the Depression, banks were only allowing people, in some cases, to withdraw 10% of what they had in the bank at one time. If you try to live a 100% committed Christianity with only 10% of your resources- plan to be in debt to the enemy! God’s bank doesn’t work like that. You can draw out all you want, all the time and never diminish your account. But you don’t know that unless you understand the principles in the book of Ephesians. So you want to get into the book of Ephesians and get it down good. It will absolutely revolutionize your life. And as every life is ignited- so the church catches fire! I pray that we’re going to have a New Year’s Revolution of Faith Alive by the time we’re through with this book. Because of its incredible riches, it will teach you who you are, how rich you are, and how you are to use those riches, for God’s glory.

Don’t live in the dark when God has offered you clear light on the matter. Make sure who you think you are is who God says you are and then go out and reflect that reality so others will know how good God is by seeing how genuine you are! This is no time for guessing games. Take your question to the Lord and you can be secure in the answer that he will give you! Hold on to that truth and protect your heart so that identity theft will be a thing of the past now and forever!
You can join Pastor Rudy at The Lighthouse Church as he teaches from Ephesians on Saturdays at 6PM and Sundays at 9 and 10:45AM. Check out http://www.tlccma.org